City Girls’ J.T.’s Request to Leave Prison Early Denied

City Girls' J.T. was hoping to get the amount of time she's got to spend in a federal prison drastically reduced by filing a motion to be released to a halfway house with nine months left of her sentence, but unfortunately, that request has been denied.

According to court documents XXL obtained Tuesday (May 14), the rapper, who's been behind bars in Federal Correctional Institution, Tallahassee on fraudulent credit card charges since July 2018, had filed a motion to be released to a halfway house nine months before her federal sentence ends on March 21, 2020. The court denied the motion on Tuesday, citing the fact that it is up to the Bureau of Prisons to determine who gets released from prison early, not judges.

In the recently denied motion, J.T.'s attorney points toward a provision of the First Step Act of 2018 that allows federal prisoners to spend more time out from behind bars and in pre-release custody. That pre-release custody would be a halfway house. According to the act, an inmate is given 54 days of good conduct credit for each year behind bars, J.T. will have served a full year on July 12, so that's 54 days of good conduct credit for her.

On that same note, an inmate is given another 54 days of good conduct credit on the first day of the last year of their sentence. In this case, J.T.'s first day is also on July 12, so she would then be granted another 54 days of conduct credit. Those provisions mean J.T. will have 108 days of good conduct credit on July 12. That means J.T. would only have 8.4 more months of her sentence left to serve. As it stands now, J.T.'s attorney expects her to be released from prison and into a halfway house on Sept. 21.

In the motion, J.T.'s attorney cites the rapper's membership of City Girls—an ascendant, Florida-hailing duo consisting of J.T. and Yung Miami—as a reason she should get special consideration for an early release.

“It is without hesitation that I can proffer that you will never hear from this Defendant regarding any type of crime, much less an economic one," the attorney says. "Granting this recommendation will allow the Defendant to get back to the studio where she belongs.”

With the above factors in mind, J.T.'s lawyer argued for the rapper born Jatavia Johnson to be released three months earlier than she would have been ordinarily. While a judge has denied J.T.'s motion, the Bureau of Prisons can still grant it, so there's still a chance J.T. will be out from behind prison walls sooner than expected.

Since she turned herself in last summer, J.T. has been forced to experience the success of City Girls vicariously. Back in February, City Girls' Cardi B-assisted single, "Twerk," peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, giving them their biggest hit to date. Speaking toXXL for the Fall 2018 edition of XXLMagazine, J.T. made it clear she's looking forward to being able to soak up the success for herself once she's released.

“It’s kinda unbelievable because you don’t see much behind these walls,” J.T. said at the time. “I don’t have Instagram or much here, so I have to go off what people tell me and I still don’t believe it. I can’t wait to come home to see and feel the love.”